What Others Say: Climate

With the scientific evidence of human-caused climate change growing stronger all the time, advocates of inaction have turned to another argument: It’s pointless for the U.S. to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, they say, because increases from other nations — particularly China — will overwhelm any U.S. reductions.

It’s true that unilateral U.S. action can’t save the planet. The United States accounts for about 16 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. By itself, the Obama administration’s controversial plan to cut emissions from existing power plants, unveiled in June, would barely make a dent in the global total.

China, meanwhile, surpassed the U.S. in 2006 to become the leading emitter of carbon dioxide. It produces 29 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions and burns half the world’s coal.

Energy-hungry China has been gobbling up worldwide coal reserves to fuel its economic growth. But it’s not true, as the do-nothing crowd in the U.S. argues, that the Chinese have no interest in reducing their dependence on coal. Their reasons just happen to be more domestic than global.

For one thing, coal burned in power plants and elsewhere is a main source of the smog that frequently shrouds Beijing and other cities. Chinese authorities regard air pollution as a major problem that threatens public health and invites social unrest.

In several cities and provinces, China is already experimenting with carbon-pricing schemes that resemble the “cap and trade” systems the U.S. Congress has refused to approve. China is also making big bets on solar panels and wind turbines — again, not primarily because of global warming, but because it sees renewable energy as a growing sector that it wants to dominate.

Taking a long view, Chinese leaders see the threats posed by rising sea levels, droughts and other effects of climate change.

For all these reasons, China is considering its first mandatory cap on coal use. Whether that will happen, or be sufficient, remains uncertain. Signals of its intentions could emerge at climate talks next month in New York, in December in Peru and next year in Paris.

That’s where the United States comes in.

If the U.S. acts to curb emissions, it puts pressure on China to go along. If it doesn’t, it gives China an excuse to delay.